HACKENSACK — Seven people have been arrested in a Park Ridge voter fraud case tied to the Nov. 3 Borough Council election, Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli said Thursday.

The investigation determined that the seven violated the criminal election statute when they voted in Park Ridge, although they were no longer lived there.

Molinelli and Superintendent of Elections Patricia DiCostanzo said they could not recall an individual case in which so many people were arrested in connection with voter fraud.

Molinelli said those arrested “inside their hearts and minds knew that they were not entitled to vote there.”

“This is not an irregularity,” he said. “This is not a mistake. This is not an omission. This was a crime, all seven of them. We would not charge them if we didn’t feel that this was an intent on their part to defraud the system and to actually vote in Park Ridge.”

“It goes on everywhere, I read in The Record this morning,” Molinelli added. “I read Mayor [Donald] Ruschman’s quote, and I don’t disagree with him. It goes on everywhere, but our office will not ignore … the fraud just because it goes on everywhere.”

Those charged in the case included Scott Brouwer, 36, of Wyckoff, and his wife, Caryn, 33, the brother and sister-in-law of the candidate who won the Nov. 3 election but lost a revote last month.

Also among those charged was Glenn Pagano, 35, a Paramus police detective who lives in River Vale. The others accused in the case were Elizabeth Cleary, 45, of Hoboken; David Schilling, 66, of River Vale; Danielle DeGiovanni-Woletz, 29, of Hackensack, and Christine Gibbons, 38, of River Vale.

“One was living with his fiancée in River Vale,” Molinelli said. “We have the husband and wife, the Brouwers, who purchased a house in Wyckoff in 2006. We have a woman who moved out of Park Ridge 15 years ago and voted by absentee. We have a man who bought property in River Vale in 2004. These are pretty egregious circumstances.”

Scott and Caryn Brouwer and Cleary were each charged with one count of fraudulent voting, a third-degree crime, and one count of making a false statement, a fourth-degree crime. In their request for absentee ballots, the Brouwers and Cleary used Park Ridge addresses, Molinelli said.

DeGiovanni-Woletz, Gibbons, Schilling and Pagano were charged with one count of fraudulent voting, a third-degree crime.

The voter fraud charges carry a potential term of three to five years in prison, and the fourth-degree charge of making a false statement carries a possible sentence of up to 18 months in jail, Molinelli said.

Molinelli said that he doubted that any of those charged would serve time behind bars.

“To suggest that why bother with these seven, since they are not the only people that do it, well they are just the unlucky seven that got caught and have been charged. What I am hopeful is that people tomorrow that read this and see this and hear it on the radio are going to understand that at least insofar as you are in Bergen, you could get caught.”

The charges result from a challenge filed in December to the Nov. 3 election, in which Republican Steven Hopper lost to Democrat Kenneth Brouwer.

Hopper alleged that at least 12 people who did not live in the borough had cast ballots.

After three days of hearings that began Jan. 11, Superior Court Judge Robert Wilson set aside the results, saying that it was impossible to determine for whom some of the ineligible voters cast ballots. Hopper won a special election over Kenneth Brouwer and a third candidate on March 9.

Although Wilson found 11 ineligible voters, Molinelli said he charged just seven because the standards for prosecution were tougher to meet than civil court standards.

The suspects are scheduled appear before Judge Louis Dinice in Central Municipal Court in Hackensack at 9 a.m. today.

All of those arrested had a connection to Park Ridge, but that did not mean they should have voted there, Molinelli said.

“Growing up in a town doesn’t mean that you can continue to vote there,” he said. “I grew up in Wood-Ridge, New Jersey, I love the town, I think it’s terrific, but 19 years later, I don’t believe I have any right to vote there.”